Chapter Text
"Carl! Carl, come on! You're gonna be- oh, to hell with it. If he's late, he's late." Carl hears his dad, Rick say. Carl groans and gets up. He stumbles downstairs and uses his hand to brush his hair. No time for an actual brushing, or he was going to be late, then he'd be late to everything, and he sure as hell wouldn't tolerate having less time at gym, even though it's his least favorite thing.
But his favorite teacher.
Even just thinking about him made Carl more motivated. He rushes through breakfast and everything else, and leaves with a quick "Seeya later." to his dad.
When he gets to school, he finds his best friends- and only friends- Sophia and Enid waiting for him.
"Good morning." Enid says calmly, while Sophia bounces up and down behind her. Carl glances at Sophia at the right second, expecting… yup. There it was. The flicker of jealousy in her eyes right before she grins at Carl.
"Gooood morning!" she sings. Carl rolls his eyes at her, but greets her with a smile of his own.
"Good morning to you both, too." Carl glances around nervously, expecting anything to happen at any time. "Too bad about our different schedules." Carl adds, like he does every morning. On cue, Sophia replies with;
"Yeah, but, like I say every morning, we have lunch together." this time it's Sophia's turn to roll her eyes. "You should know this." Enid looks around too, but instead of nervousness, with tranquility.
"There's a new girl at school." she says randomly. "Maybe you can add her to our band of girls with one boy." Carl scowls at her. "What? It's true, you get along better with girls than boys." Sophia nods, giving Enid a significant look.
"Alright, alright. What's her name?" Carl asks, giving in. Sophia giggles, jumping in before Enid could respond.
"Oh, her. I know her name! It's Chloe Field. She moved here not to long ago. I saw her at the mall. She has red hair, beautiful blue eyes, but not like yours Carl, more lighter, and pale skin, with a reasonable amount of natural blush." Carl shakes his head.
"Well, you seem to know her well." Enid comments, echoing exactly what was in Carl's head.
"Exactly what I was thinking." Carl smiles at her. Sophia's already indignant face twists into a full blown glare.
"Well," she huffs, color rising in her cheeks. "School is starting." she leaves without another word. Carl frowns. There she goes again, not as careful as she wants to be.
'If you want to win Enid's heart,' Carl thinks, his gaze following Sophia. 'Don't do that.'
After that, the day passes sluggishly. So much so, that when gym came, Carl was looking forward to running. Sorta. That might have mostly been his excitement to see Negan.
Carl walks quickly to gym, keeping his head low, murmuring apologies to people who bumped into him, and wincing when they ignored him. It felt exactly like when Shane… ugh… teased him. It didn't feel like teasing though. Maybe that's what it sounded like to Carl's mom, Lori, but it was really more like Shane was making fun of him. Not teasing him.
"Hello again." says… him. Carl looks up immediately. There he was. Negan. Carl smiles softly at Negan, and nods.
"Thank you." he mumbles. Negan tilts his head with a kind smile in return.
"No problem, kid." Negan replies. Carl moves on, feeling more confident about himself. This was why he loved- oh god. scratch that. Carl loved no one but his family, everyone else was under the label "Like". But Negan seemed more than that… but not "Love" at all. No. Rephrase. This was why he looked forward to Negan. Negan made him feel welcome. Better. Confident. The exact opposites of what Shane made him feel. Which was weird, because Shane wasn't that bad of a guy. Negan was more of the badass. But, things like that happen. There's no doubt about that. Carl stays lost in thought until Negan speaks again, and then his full attention was on him. He wanted to seem like a good listener, at least. "Alright," Negan starts. Carl puts his whole entire mind on Negan. Or at least, on the topic of Negan. "I would like all of you to…" Blah blah blahbity blah blah. Carl does listen, and do what he was told, but who cares?
After gym, Carl watches Negan for a little while before moving. He wanted to prolong this feeling for as long as possible. Who knows, maybe it'll carry on until after school.
Speaking of after school, today was the day that Carl was going over after school to see his mom. And Shane. Shane would probably be there. He always is. Carl scowls and moves to leave.
"Seeya." Negan says. Carl smiles at him and hurries away.
~·.·~
After school, Carl drops off his backpack at his house before going to his mom's. When he gets to his mom's house, he greets Lori with a hug.
"Hi Mom." he grins at her before looking nervously around for Shane. Lori smiles back him.
"Hi, honey. Remember to- Oh. Well, thank you." she stops mid-instruction. Carl knew she was going to tell him to take his shoes off at the door, but Carl already did. Carl also knew that it was a pain to clean up shoeprints off of the floor, and certainly off of a carpet. Of which was only a couple of feet away from the door.
"I got it, Mom." Carl jokes. "You don't need to remind me every single time." Lori grins and shakes her head.
"I guess I don't. You've grown up." Carl pretend-glares at her, and she laughs. "How was your day? How was school?" she asks. Carl smiles, thinking immediately about Negan.
"Good. Good. Oh, oops. I mean, both were good." Carl blushes, and regrets it as soon as it happens. Lori stifles a snort.
"It's alright. And my day was good too, thanks for asking." Lori teases. Carl nudges her playfully. Now this is teasing. Carl freezes as someone else comes into his view.
Shane…